‘We have to see the big picture’: Why Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic is caught in the middle

It seems to work at cross-purposes when Masai Ujiri talks incessantly about the Raptors “rebuilding” and highly competitive athletes on the roster feeling in their hearts they can win every game they play.
And caught in the middle is head coach Darko Rajakovic. Are the Raptors playing for the next couple of seasons or are they playing for the three games this week?
That will be his great challenge in the coming season, trying to balance both, to see the bigger long-term picture while wringing every ounce out of a team he has in the here and now.
Rajakovic spent the summer scouring the world looking for ideas to implement, schemes to teach and lessons to learn.
“There was a lot of checkpoints with players, a lot of opportunities to talk to them, to work with players and also there was a lot of opportunity for me and my coaching staff to focus on areas that we want to improve, learning from other coaches, other leagues, other teams,” he said. “It’s always an opportunity to learn doing the summer.”
Combining development with the nightly expectation to win is not going to be easy.
“Obviously the goal is to compete and to win every night,” Rajakovic said as the Raptors kicked off the franchise’s 30th season at media day Monday. “But at the same time we got to understand where we are, we got to understand … we are starting Year 1 of our rebuild.
“Every night we are going to prepare to go and compete and fight and bring the best we can but at the same time we have to see big picture and understand what we’re trying to achieve. We’re trying to build a team that will compete for championships and we need to lay down the path toward that.”
Rajakovic spent much of the summer flitting around the world trying to explain to the players the double-edged sword of the coming season.
He had them at workouts around the Summer League season in Las Vegas in July, he had the entire roster in Spain for a mini-camp in August, he gathered them again in Miami in September. He built on relationships he forged last season, establishing relationships that go beyond the game. Point guard Immanuel Quickley said they talked about families and books as much as pick-and-roll actions and defensive schemes.
It was Rajakovic’s method last season — coaching players as people rather than just athletes — and he had a full summer to do it this off-season.
“I think there has to be a good balance in the summer, just giving players a little bit of room for their individual work and rest and to be around the families and friends,” Rajakovic said. “And there has to be some connecting points with the team that we can lay in front of them what is the plan, what is the path and what do they need to work on.”
Keeping the messages separate is going to be a challenge. The players know who’s ready to play now; the front office wants to know who might be ready in a season or two. A few losses here and there because players aren’t ready for the responsibility they get isn’t a huge issue to the front office, but it will be to the players if they miss the playoffs or the play-in round by a few losses.
Hence Rajakovic’s balancing act. Everyone knows there will be valleys, it’s up to him to make sure they aren’t never-ending.
“Of course we want to win and we know we can win but it just takes time,” Scottie Barnes said. “So just don’t get frustrated throughout that process and just keeping trying to focus on our main goal, try to get better and focus on that picture.
“That’s where it’s going to start with us, taking those baby steps game by game.”
The theme likely to emerge during the pre-season and early in the regular season is that a young roster will play hard and pay lip service to the longer term, knowing it expects to win regardless.
“Will we be young? Will be learning a lot still? Yeah. Are we probably, maybe not as talented as other teams? Maybe,” Quickley said. “But that’s no excuse to not play hard each and every night, no excuse to not give 110 per cent and no excuse not to be prepared against whoever you go against.
“So, obviously, there’s building blocks and steps that you have to take to reach where you want to be, but that’s no excuse to not come out and try to win every night.”
That would fit well with the two-step dance Rajakovic has to perform.